Making a nostalgic Apple mouse wireless

If you’ve got an old mouse sitting around that has that perfect retro look why not start using it again? We’d bet there’s just enough room in there to turn the input device wireless.

The hack does away with everything but the case. The guts from a brand new wireless laser mouse are used as replacements. For the most part this is a simple process of making room for the new board and laying it in place. It involves cutting off a few plastic case nubs, enlarging the hole on the bottom so that the laser has a clear line of sight to the desktop, and hot gluing the thing in place. The button cover had a bit of plastic glued in place so that it lines up correctly with the replacement mouse’s switch.

The only thing that didn’t work out well is the battery situation. The AA cell that the mouse needs was too big for the retrofit so it was swapped with an AAA. These have a lower capacity which means more frequent replacement.

He could have also added the scroll wheel by cutting a hole in the side if the guts he has are small enough. But saying someone could make an improvement and doing them your self is a different story. Cool work, personally I doubt its comfortable to us though.

Well I just finished (literally 5 minutes ago) turning a Apple Extended II keyboard into a USB version, including a USB hub internally and two USB ports where the right ADB socket was, and as I was just sitting here contemplating what to do with the Apple mouse that came with it I thought “let’s take a break and look at what’s new on HAD…”.